Opioid Addiction, Criminal Justice Link Strong

“More than half of Americans who have a prescription opioid use disorder or use heroin have had contact with the criminal justice system, a retrospective cross-sectional analysis suggests.

And as the intensity of their opioid use increased, so did their involvement with the criminal justice system, reported Tyler Winkelman, MD, MSc, of Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis, and co-authors in JAMA Network Open.

The study included 78,976 respondents — 42,495 women and 36,481 men — representing 196,280,447 adults in the U.S. In the 12-month period:

2% (124,026,842 adults) reported no opioid use

3% (61,462,897 adults) reported prescription opioid use

3% (8,439,889 adults) reported prescription opioid misuse

8% (1,475,433 adults) reported prescription opioid use disorder

4% (875,386 adults) reported heroin use

People who reported any level of opioid use were significantly more likely to be white; have low income; and report a chronic condition, disability, severe mental illness, or co-occurring drug use than were individuals who reported no opioid use.

As the level of opioid use rose, involvement in the criminal justice system (excluding minor traffic violations) climbed. History of criminal justice involvement was associated with: